Hi Drake, Motor loads with control circuitry tend to have problems with MSW (phase detection or zero crossing). There are plenty of motor loads out there that are powered by modified sine wave, so it is not a hard fast rule that all motor loads have problems with MSW. You can look at the waveform on a scope. Under no load, it should have the appearance of a square wave with a ground-level step between each 1/2 cycle. Although the DR incorporated a robust design with good surge capability, they typically fail due to control board or AC board related issues. They are technically still repairable, although parts supplies are dwindling. The cost of true sine wave inverters has come down significantly in recent years. That way you don't need to worry about compatibility. Rgds, _________________________________________________________________________________________
Eric Bentsen | Schneider Electric | Customer Care Center | Advanced Technical Support | Technical Support Engineer Phone: 866-519-1470 option #1 | Schneider Electric Support Center: +800-640-0770 Email: eric.bent...@schneider-electric.com | Site: www.schneider-electric.com/solar | Address: 1660 Scenic Ave. Costa Mesa, CA 92626 How am I doing? Please e-mail my manager with any feedback at: jim.hou...@schneider-electric.com *** Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail From: Drake <drake.chamber...@redwoodalliance.org> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>, Date: 05/20/2014 07:24 AM Subject: [RE-wrenches] Modified sine deterioration Sent by: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org> Hello Wrenches, We are diagnosing a system with a 20 year old Trace DR 1512 inverter. Recently a motor burned out that had been running on the system. I do understand that modified sine (modified square) wave inverters are hard on motors in general. My question is, "does the quality of the Mayan Pyramid sine wave deteriorate with time as the capacitors dry up, or for any other reason? Would the power quality be expected to have declined on an old unit like this? Thanks, Drake Drake Chamberlin Athens Electric LLC OH License 44810 CO License 3773 NABCEP Certified Solar PV 740-448-7328 http://athens-electric.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. ______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
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